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George Gershwin
George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned jazz, popular music, popular and classical music. Among his best-known works are the songs "Swanee (song), Swanee" (1919) and "Fascinating Rhythm" (1924), the orchestral compositions ''Rhapsody in Blue'' (1924) and ''An American in Paris'' (1928), the jazz standards "Embraceable You" (1928) and "I Got Rhythm" (1930) and the opera ''Porgy and Bess'' (1935), which included the hit "Summertime (George Gershwin song), Summertime". His ''Of Thee I Sing'' (1931) was the first musical theater, musical to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Gershwin studied piano under Charles Hambitzer and composition with Rubin Goldmark, Henry Cowell, and Joseph Brody. He began his career as a song plugger but soon started composing Broadway theater works with his brother Ira Gershwin and with Buddy DeSylva. He moved to Paris, intending to study with Nadia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carl Van Vechten
Carl Van Vechten (; June 17, 1880December 21, 1964) was an American writer and Fine-art photography, artistic photographer who was a patron of the Harlem Renaissance and the literary estate, literary executor of Gertrude Stein. He gained fame as a writer, and notoriety as well, for his 1926 novel ''Nigger Heaven''. In his later years, he took up photography and took many portraits of notable people. Although he was married to women for most of his adult years, Van Vechten engaged in numerous homosexual affairs during his lifetime. Life and career Born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, he was the youngest child of Charles Duane Van Vechten and Ada Amanda Van Vechten (née Fitch). Both of his parents were well educated. His father was a wealthy, prominent banker. His mother established the Cedar Rapids Public Library and had great musical talent. As a child, Van Vechten developed a passion for music and theatre. He graduated from Washington High School (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), Washington High ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Of Thee I Sing
''Of Thee I Sing'' is a musical with a score by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin and a book by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind. The musical lampoons American politics; the story concerns John P. Wintergreen, who runs for President of the United States on the "love" platform. When he falls in love with the sensible Mary Turner instead of Diana Devereaux, the beautiful pageant winner selected for him, he gets into political hot water. The original Broadway production, directed by Kaufman, opened in 1931 and ran for 441 performances, gaining critical and box office success. It has been revived twice on Broadway and in concert stagings in the U.S. and in London. In 1932, ''Of Thee I Sing'' was the first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Background The Gershwins and George S. Kaufman had collaborated on the satirical 1927 musical '' Strike up the Band,'' which played in Philadelphia. The show concerned a cheese manufacturer who sponsors a war against ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Odessa
ODESSA is an American codename (from the German language, German: ''Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen'', meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) coined in 1946 to cover Ratlines (World War II aftermath), Nazi underground escape-plans made at the end of World War II by a group of ''SS'' officers with the aim of facilitating secret escape routes, and any directly ensuing arrangements. The concept of the existence of an actual ODESSA organisation has circulated widely in fictional Spy fiction, spy novels and movies, including Frederick Forsyth's best-selling 1972 thriller ''The Odessa File''. The escape-routes have become known as "Ratlines (World War II), ratlines". Known goals of elements within the ''SS'' included allowing ''SS'' members to escape to Argentina or to the Middle East under false passports. Although an unknown number of wanted Nazis and war criminals escaped Germany and often Europe, most experts deny that an organisation called ODESSA ever existed. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
DuBose Heyward
Edwin DuBose Heyward (August 31, 1885 – June 16, 1940) was an American author best known for his 1925 novel '' Porgy''. He and his wife Dorothy, a playwright, adapted it as a 1927 play of the same name. The couple worked with composer George Gershwin to adapt the work as the 1935 opera ''Porgy and Bess''. It was later adapted as a 1959 film of the same name. Heyward also wrote poetry and other novels and plays, as well as the children's book '' The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes'' (1939). Childhood, education, and early career Heyward was born in 1885 in Charleston, South Carolina, the son of Jane Screven (DuBose) and Edwin Watkins Heyward. He was a descendant of Judge Thomas Heyward, Jr., a South Carolinian signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, and his wife, who were of the planter elite. As a child and young man, Heyward was frequently ill. He contracted polio when he was 18. Two years later he contracted typhoid fever, and the followin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BBC Music Magazine
''BBC Music Magazine'' is a British monthly magazine that focuses primarily on classical music. The first issue appeared in September 1992. BBC Worldwide, the commercial subsidiary of the BBC, was the original owner and publisher together with Warner Music Enterprises during its initial phase. Immediate Media Company has been the publisher since 2012. Since March 1993 an edition of ''BBC Music Magazine'' has been published in North America. The content of the magazine reflects the broadcast output of BBC Radio 3, which is devoted primarily to classical music, but also broadcasts some jazz and world music. Each edition comes with an audio CD, often including BBC recordings of full-length works. The magazine features articles on subjects such as favourite conductors and trends in 21st-century classical music. The magazine's circulation was 37,530 as of 2008. Profits "are returned to the BBC". Previous editors of the magazine have included Helen Wallace and Oliver Condy. Cha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maurice Ravel
Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism in music, Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In the 1920s and 1930s Ravel was internationally regarded as France's greatest living composer. Born to a music-loving family, Ravel attended France's premier music college, the Paris Conservatoire; he was not well regarded by its conservative establishment, whose biased treatment of him caused a scandal. After leaving the conservatoire, Ravel found his own way as a composer, developing a style of great clarity and incorporating elements of modernism (music), modernism, baroque music, baroque, Neoclassicism (music), neoclassicism and, in his later works, jazz. He liked to experiment with musical form, as in his best-known work, ''Boléro'' (1928), in which repetition takes the place of development. Renowned for his abi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nadia Boulanger
Juliette Nadia Boulanger (; 16 September 188722 October 1979) was a French music teacher, conductor and composer. She taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century, and also performed occasionally as a pianist and organist. From a musical family, she achieved early honours as a student at the Conservatoire de Paris but, believing that she had no particular talent as a composer, she gave up writing music and became a teacher. In that capacity, she influenced generations of young composers, especially those from the United States and other English-speaking countries. Among her students were many important composers, soloists, arrangers, and conductors, including Grażyna Bacewicz, Daniel Barenboim, Lennox Berkeley, İdil Biret, Elliott Carter, Aaron Copland, David Diamond (composer), David Diamond, John Eliot Gardiner, Philip Glass, Roy Harris, Quincy Jones, Gilbert Levine, Dinu Lipatti, Igor Markevitch, Julia Perry, Astor Piazzolla,. Laurence Rosenthal, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buddy DeSylva
George Gard "Buddy" DeSylva (January 27, 1895 – July 11, 1950) was an American songwriter, film producer and record executive. He wrote or co-wrote many popular songs, and along with Johnny Mercer and Glenn Wallichs, he co-founded Capitol Records. Biography DeSylva was born in New York City, but grew up in California, and attended the University of Southern California, where he joined the Theta Xi fraternity. His father, Aloysius J. De Sylva, was better known to American audiences as actor Hal De Forrest. Aloysius was of multiracial ancestry, with his father being born in the West Indies and his mother being born in either England or Scotland. His father was Dr. James M. Fenwick, a Black physician who emigrated to the United States in 1865. In 1889, Aloysius legally changed his surname from Fenwick to De Sylva to pass as for white, more specifically, someone from Portugal. Buddy's father was also a lawyer as well as an actor. His mother, Georgetta Miles Gard, was the dau ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Song Plugger
A song plugger or song demonstrator is an individual who promotes music to musicians, record labels, and customers. Song pluggers work for a music publishing company or operate independently. The function of the role has evolved as advances in music technology changed the music industry over the course of the 20th and 21st centuries. History Sheet music plugging In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a song plugger was a vocalist or piano player employed in the early 20th century by department stores, music stores and song publishers to promote and help sell new sheet music. Prior to high-quality recorded music on phonograph records, sheet music sales were the sole measurement of a song's popularity. Music publisher Frank Harding has been credited with innovating the sales method. Typically, the pianist sat on the mezzanine level of a store. When patrons wanted to hear the music before buying, a clerk would send the music up to the demonstrator to be played. Although the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Brody
Joseph Brody ( ) (1876/1877 – 1937) was an American Jewish composer who wrote for the Yiddish theatre as well as liturgical Jewish works. He taught George Gershwin and was a friend of Yossele Rosenblatt. His daughter, Estelle Brody, was an actress. Biography Early life Brody was born on March 12, 1877, according to his gravestone, in Lyakhavichy, Minsk Governorate, in the Russian Empire, although the Lexicon of Yiddish Theatre gives the date as February 12, and in own his naturalization application he stated his birthday was January 22, 1876. His father, Harris Brody, was a tailor and sent Joseph to a Cheder for his early education. His father emigrated to the United States in 1887, at which point Joseph entered a Yeshiva in Slonim, where he stayed for six years. During that time he developed an aptitude for music, and was greatly impressed by the military orchestras which regularly played in the park in Slonim during the summers. After being noticed by cantors who visit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Cowell
Henry Dixon Cowell (; March 11, 1897 – December 10, 1965) was an American composer, writer, pianist, publisher, teacher Marchioni, Tonimarie (2012)"Henry Cowell: A Life Stranger Than Fiction" ''The Juilliard Journal''. Retrieved 19 June 2022.Campbell, Brett (2014)"Liberating Henry Cowell's Music at San Quentin" ''San Francisco Classical Voice''. Retrieved 19 June 2022. and the husband of Sidney Robertson Cowell. Earning a reputation as an extremely controversial performer and eccentric composer, Cowell became a leading figure of American avant-garde music for the first half of the 20th century — his writings and music serving as a great influence to similar artists at the time, including Lou Harrison, George Antheil, and John Cage, among others.Swed, Mark (2010)"Critic's notebook: Revelatory Henry Cowell revival at Lincoln Center" ''The Los Angeles Times''. Retrieved 19 June 2022. He is considered one of America's most important and influential composers. Cowell was mostly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rubin Goldmark
Rubin Goldmark (August 15, 1872 – March 6, 1936) was an American composer, pianist, and educator.Perlis, ''New Grove Dictionary of American Music'', v. II, p. 239 Although in his time he was an often-performed American nationalist composer, his works are seldom played now. Today he is best known as the teacher of other important composers, including Aaron Copland and George Gershwin. Early life Rubin Goldmark was born in New York City in 1872, a nephew of composer Karl Goldmark, and of Jewish heritage. Goldmark completed his undergraduate studies at City College in New York. After completing his studies in the United States in 1889, Goldmark traveled to Austria, where he studied at the Vienna Conservatory until 1891. There he studied piano and composition, the former with Alfred von Livonius, the latter with Johann Nepomuk Fuchs. Return to the United States After the conclusion of his studies in Vienna, Goldmark returned to United States. From 1891 to 1893 he taught piano a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
